Why being a BlackBerry and Android fan I gave my mom an iPhone?

My mom is visiting us in Canada. She’s 60. She has never, ever, had a smartphone.

So in this day and age, the first obvious thing she wants to do upon arrival is tell everyone at home that she is fine and happy. Then of course, she wants to stay connected with them. She had heard about popular apps like WhatsApp but never used them because her old brick phone was from before the smartphone era. At this point I’m thinking we really need to get her a new phone, but which one?

Thankfully, part of what we do at MyPhone2Go involves testing phones to make sure the SIM cards we distribute, and the mobile services we bundle will work properly on our customers phones. Personally, this is something I enjoy a lot and I like to get my hands on every device I can.

Finding out the best phone for my mom was an interesting exercise because my decision wasn’t based on watching reviews or reading specs, but solely on my experience using each device for months (years in some cases). I decided to write about it hoping it will be as interesting to you as it was to me.

Disclosures: 1) nobody pays me to write this stuff, 2) I have purchased with my own money every device I test, 3) What I share is my own experience through the years and what I’ve seen in my circles, I don’t know about the rest of the world, 4) I love my mom.

I have used smartphones since the good ol' days of the BlackBerry handsets, and have had the opportunity to toy around with all sorts of models from Apple, LG, Samsung, BlackBerry, and more recently OnePlus. I am also the repairman for my friends phones and computers, so I’ve had my share of fixing cracked screens, ports, jailbreaking, third-party launchers, etc. Currently I keep an LG G, iPhone 4S, iPhone 6, OnePlus One, Samsung Galaxy S4, and Blackberry Passport as my go-to devices for testing, and personal and business use. I don’t keep any Windows phones, so my starting point was precisely that I didn’t want to give my mom a Windows phone. Let’s move on to the iOS vs Android vs BlackBerry (OS 10) thing.

BlackBerry Passport

This is my personal device. I dropped BlackBerry back in 2007 but came back last year to give them another try and I am honestly glad I did it.

For my needs, OS 10 is by far the most powerful, secure and streamlined system. It’s designed with productivity in mind. I find the Hub the most intelligent use of app data integration in one place, I have direct access to 3 email accounts, sms, phone calls, WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BBM, system-wide notifications (including calendar, app updates, system upgrades, etc.), all this without having to ever leave the Hub.

As for security, I have VPNs running in virtually every device at home, as well as antivirus and encryption. I don’t have to do any of this on the BlackBerry. Hackers have left BlackBerry alone until now and governments get frustrated with them because they can’t crack their security to spy on their citizens.

If you think that privacy and security are not important I’d say think again. About half of the people we know have had to deal with credit card fraud at some point, including ourselves, twice. Cleaning devices and wiping hard drives has now become a necessity and part of regular device maintenance. If you receive ads on any social media app or computer screen while browsing the web, your privacy has already been compromised. But we have grown complacent of it, simply shrugging it off, thinking that dismissing the fact will make it go away somehow. It doesn’t, companies make a lot of money selling our private information, nowadays there’s so much of it to be exploited that they have coined the term ‘big data’. Everyone wants a piece of your private information: governments, companies, hackers.

As for hardware, this is the better built phone of all the devices, and does provide the most reliable signal for both WiFi and carrier network. Performance of our PAYG SIM is flawless, and battery life is the best of all other devices.

Why I didn’t give this device to my mom: she didn’t like the physical keyboard nor the form factor of the Passport.

Samsung Galaxy S4, OnePlus One, LG G

Android is the coolest OS, period. All these are my toy phones because Google gives both users and developers such level of customization that you can almost imprint your own DNA on your device and make it virtually an expression of yourself. No wonder Android is the developer’s dream world.

Samsung Galaxy S4. Such a cool little phone. It still runs like new, no lag, just as responsive. I have Nova Launcher on it to make it more fun, less cluttered and more responsive. I have kept this device to be able to compare it to the iPhone 4S in terms of aging exclusively, since both devices came out at the same time.

Using our PAYG SIM on it (OneSimCard) is very straight forward and both the apps and the SIM perform better than on the iPhone 4S. This was an important consideration because we don’t want my mom to pay for international roaming but WhatsApp does require a mobile number for validation purposes and for the app to work, in other words, having a valid SIM card, which would be our roaming PAYG SIM to avoid those hectic roaming charges. Besides, with our PAYG SIM she would still be able to text and call whenever she would need to.

Other features I like about the S4: removable battery and expandable memory, very handy for the long term user like myself.

OnePlus One. This is the most affordable Android available on the high end specs range. And I really like the CyanogenMod overlay on Android, it’s clean, beautiful and functional, so much that I don’t need to use a launcher, as opposed to other devices (i,e, Samsung) that typically load their devices with clutter apps. With the launch of the OnePlus Two the company has really stepped up their game, though the invite system is inconvenient to say the least, I know people who have grown frustrated of waiting for an invite and decided for other devices in the similar price range. People like to have choice, be empowered to when and how to buy, not to be told when and what to do with their money, so I personally don’t understand why OnePlus does this, and hope it doesn’t backfire on them at some point.

Using our PAYG SIM on this phone is also a breeze, a little better than the Galaxy S4 performance-wise, and didn’t have to go through the unlocking process since the company sells unlocked world phones off the shelf, which is important to consider since our PAYG SIM will not work on locked non-GSM phones (like my mom’s Samsung brick).

LG G. This is an older device and I still can’t believe how crisp and tidy its screen is. LG for sure packs on their phones one of the best LCD screens out there. I use this device mostly for learning purposes.

Why I didn’t give any of these devices to my mom: Android is fun, but you have to spend time learning the tricks. It becomes a toy phone, not a functional phone, not for my mom at 60 anyway. She wanted a phone she can use without getting confused, distracted, or learning curves.

iPhone 6, iPhone 4S. My very personal opinion about iPhones is that they have become very expensive, overpriced, boring phones. Even when you jailbreak them, at best you can hope to install some gimmicky feature that will somehow resemble the power of an Android device, at which point, if you are aware enough you start asking yourself: Why did I spend so much money when I could just have bought an Android? That was my case anyway.

I’m sorry Apple fanboys, I do not wish to start a brand war, I’m just speaking from personal experience and taste, and seeing most of my friends transitioning from Apple to Android over the last 3 years. I think I’m the only crazy one to have gone back to BB, and I can’t wait to check out the upcoming Android-based Priv.

Apple still makes (I think) the best computers and their price is worth it. I prefer to have my Mac running a Windows virtual drive (I use VirtualBox, simple enough) than having a Windows running Mac. My MacBook Pro is 7 years old and I’m sure I can get another 3 or 4 out of it since I have upgraded RAM and switched from HDD to SSD. Also, the security and backup features on a Mac are more powerful and simple to use than Windows, for the average user that is. I have to get back on track now.

iPhone 6. Side by side, the Galaxy S4 (3 generations older) and the iPhone 6 are not much different in size, form factor, or display (note that they are 2 very different technologies), and I can barely notice the difference in performance and speed when using them on a daily basis, but I can do a lot more with the Galaxy S4 than with the iPhone 6.

iPhone 4S. This poor guy has not endured the test of time, I blame Apple in part for that because with every OS upgrade the phone has just become slower and less responsive. Everything works, but nothing does well. It baffles me how these phones re-sell anywhere from $100 to over $200 on eBay.ca.

Apple has remained true to its roots. The screen of my iPod touch 2nd generation (still works, from 2010) looks very similar to the iPhone 6, because Apple has kept consistency and has improved upon previous versions, unlike every other company. People become familiar with their iPhone and know exactly what to expect from the next generation, there is no angst or fear of change, just knowing that the next phone will inevitably be better than its predecesor, though barely noticeable.

Apple’s market base is huge and incredibly strong —just consider the boom created by the release of the iPhone 6S, and this happens every year. This allows for their app and media ecosystem to be indeed at the forefront of innovation and development.

Beyond apps and media, Apple’s device ecosystem includes such a variety of brands and accessories that your whole digital life can be seamlessly integrated, although I will be the first to say that Google is working hard at doing the same for the Android ecosystem, and all major brands and carriers are in the race to conquer the Internet of Things (IoT) kingdom, that is, smart appliances, homes, buildings, and infrastructure in general, creepy if you ask me.

Why I didn’t give the iPhone 6 to my mom: neither me nor my mom wanted her to carry the responsibility of a $900 phone, and the fact that in her case, the iPhone 6 didn’t provide a real added value against the 4S.

Why I gave the iPhone 4S to my mom: it’s a great beginner’s smartphone suitable for the short term use. Apple’s iOS interface is intuitive and so simplistic that my mom has no trouble navigating through apps and focusing on what she is typing and reading, and nothing else. Luckily, she will not be using juice-thirsty apps :)